31 Mar 652 – clear skies, light breeze, warm temps
I wandered into Springfield early in the morning looking for the Braying Goat tavern where I heard rumor of a spicy dwarven ale that kicks like a goat. Once I found the place, the crude sign looked more like a yakking yak than a goat. I must have muttered that last part out loud because a couple of patrons leaving the establishment were nearly shouting “Yakking Yak!” at each other between fits of laughter. I may have inadvertently renamed this tavern… whoops. My brethren aren’t really known for consuming ale, which is their loss, so I stand out quite a bit ordering not only ale, but a dwarven variety with more kick than an angry goat. My ale order caught the attention of the only dwarf currently at the bar and he warned me that such a stiff drink might be a bit too much for such a prissy elf such as myself. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!
After the 3rd pint, a small crowd of bar patrons just had to take a gander at the strange, ale-drinking elf. I started challenging them to an arm wrestle for a drink, which few could pass up… and even fewer could best me. A tall, burly human walked in, gawked at me, introduced himself as Galthor (how polite!) and proceeded to best me for a drink. Ho ho! We have a winner! I was having a good time this morning… and that’s when we learned of the slavers…
Roland
31 Mar 652 – sunny and warm
It has been several weeks since I was exiled from my homeland. I couldn’t prove Mr. Cobblepot was behind my parent’s death and beating him within an inch of his life failed to elicit the confession I expected. The crime lord used one of his bought-and-paid-for magistrates to convict me of “Illegal Use of Magic” as the only explanation to my bypassing his security (what a joke) and had me thrown out of my home. Since then, I have been wandering the land in a kind of daze trying to pick a direction for my life.
As it so happens, I wandered into the town of Springfield and, more specifically, the Braying Goat tavern for a drink and a bit of gossip. As I entered, there was a burly elf arm wrestling for drinks and a small crowd around the table cheering them on. When the elf won, I introduced myself and learned my opponent was called Roland. I took a seat and proceeded to discover this elf was both dexterous AND STRONG! OMG!
I ended up sipping the pint I won and as we sat there enjoying our drinks, a haggard man practically flops down at our table and goes on about escaping some slavers. Slavers! Something needs to be done about them and I aim to help stop them! My new buddies and I decide to hitch a ride to the RIFT where the slavers were rumored to operate from in exchange for guard duty along the way. We were dropped off near the RIFT without incident.
We spied a small settlement near the edge of the RIFT and proceeded to walk up to it in hopes of learning more about the area… and ferreting out whether or not this place was in cahoots with the slavers or not. The place was being guarded by what looks like a bunch of kids who shout alarm at our approach. A man, Vargus, comes to the gates to meet us and during our discourse we learn they have been raided often and many of the adults and children have been enslaved. Vargus’s son, Temus, was taken and his older brother, Etin, is now out there looking for him. As our party agrees to look for Vargus’s sons, it dawns on me that this guy was involved in Mr. Cobblepot’s crime syndicate and is one of a handful I suspected of being directly involved in the death of my parents! I was fuming so badly that it was all I could do to hold my tongue as well as my sword until we left to go check out the RIFT. I let the others know of my suspicions but that I refuse to take any permanently drastic actions until I have proof… something my exile has taught me.
Roland generously shared a mug of his travelling cask of ale (more of that spicy dwarven stuff from the Braying Goat) and I took a big swallow to calm my fury, as did most of the others. That was probably a mistake because shortly after it was put away and we were gazing down into the Rift, Roland shouts “Behind us!!” and proceeds to arm himself and lunge back the way we came… and promptly missed the Hobgoblin, running straight into the 2nd one hiding just behind it. I armed myself with my trusty longsword and bullwhip striking out with the whip to try and disarm the javelin the first Hobgoblin was holding… only to have the whip latch on and the creature yanked me off my feet forcing me to fall flat on my face! Oh the embarrassment! 🙁 Throck’s throwing axe went wide. The only one of us to hit anything was Jordan’s Magic Missile. I think that ale affected us more than we want to admit.
Roland dropped his rapier during the fight, getting hurt picking it back up; Throck and I fought the first Hobgoblin together with Throck landing the killing blow by severing the thing in two with a mighty swing of his greataxe! The 2nd Hobgoblin tried to escape, but my bullwhip tripped him up pretty badly such that Roland had to stabilize the creature before we could interrogate it. That could have gone better; none of us could speak a language it could understand. I surprised it by using Orcish, but in the end Throck got impatient and tried to stomp its face in… except that instead he proceeded to stomp my hand and nearly broke it!
We split the coin we found on them and will donate the arms and armor to the kids back at the small settlement who are in dire need of it. Since we’re going back to lick our wounds and prepare spells for descent into the Rift, I think I will enlist Throck in creating a diversion so I can sneak into Vargus’s house and poke around a bit.
Galthor
01 Apr 652
Scribbling this note while I keep an eye on the others while they heal. I dragged them all onto this little ledge near the goblin lair by a rubble-blocked doorway, a metal ladder down and a now-removed wooden ladder up. The goblin sentry was some kind of wicked earth elemental thing that was some hideous boulder with a ton of bitey mouths. If it weren’t for Roland, I don’t think any of us would be alive right now… I see now why these goblins have been such a thorn in the side of this area; there’s black magic involved and that makes it them all the more dangerous! Anyway, back to the matter at hand, last night while Roland and Jordan slept, Throck and I searched the little settlement for Vargus’s house in order to help me find evidence of his involvement with my parent’s death. Bless his heart, he did his best to help, but between his not-so-glib tongue and my not-so-sneaky rogue skills, we managed to bungle the entire op and had the town with fire and pitchforks along with Vargus at our doorstep ready to lynch us. That’s when Roland and Jordan stepped in and managed to calm everyone down… the extra weapons and armor we gave them helped as well. Vargus even admitted he was involved, but I got nothing more from him. Dammit, he KNOWS something! Maybe if we manage to rescue his sons, he’ll be more willing to tell me something I can use against Cobblepot.
After pissing off and then calming the settlement, we came back to The Rift and started making our way down into the gorge via the obvious path. Too obvious, in retrospect… I should have been more wary. About halfway down, the rocks themselves moved of their own accord and came crashing down upon us. If Roland hadn’t noticed something amiss and shouted a warning, we would have been in a very sorry state indeed. He cried out “ENUN-CHUUK” and grew to a massive height! He tried to grab a giant boulder from the small ledge above us and *shudder* that’s when the Thing started to viciously bite him! The boulder was actually something from the Plane of Earth; what was it doing up there but playing guard duty for the goblins? Who amongst them could conjure up such a thing? The warlock might know, once he wakes up from his wounds, I’ll ask him.
Roland managed to knock down that Earth Thing and Throck went to town on it with his giant axe. His mighty blows hurt the thing terribly and allowed Jordan and I to destroy the thing, but not before Throck collapsed due to all of his injuries. We tried to enter an alcove nearby and learned it was the front door to the goblin lair. We tried to talk our way in and managed to instead get crossbows shot at us; nearly knocking out Jordan in the process by grazing his forehead. As we retreated down the cliffside via the ladder, Jordan lost his grip due to the blood in his eyes and landed hard on the ledge below and passed out. The darn fool is lucky he didn’t fall off the cliff!
I managed to get everyone else down the side of the cliff thanks to the wooden ladder nearby down to this seemingly forgotten ledge and I took down the ladder to prevent those goons from up above to easily get down here (and they tried!). I don’t have the healing skills like Roland does, so I stabilized everyone and settled in to watch over them while they slept. Hopefully Roland will wake up soon and we can get everyone back on their feet. Taking care of these goblins is now our top priority and the fact that there’s dark magic involved means we have to be very careful.
Galthor
02 Apr 652
We cleared the door of the partial tunnel collapse and made our way inside the abandoned tunnel. The door at the far end was trapped with a magic ward that mimicked a ghoul’s touch! The magic these goblins have access to is dark indeed and if I ever meet the necromancer responsible, he will pay dearly, I promise you that!
Galthor
02 Apr 652 dank tunnel just inside the door Throck broke down
It is with a heavy heart that I write this; our valiant ranger comrade Galthor, after delivering a mighty, crippling blow to the winged worgen man thing, fell in battle with it. Through his sacrifice, we have survived, but… crows take these goblin slavers!!! Throck nearly died as well, but Roland managed to heal him with his divine magic. Roland managed to deflect the thing’s bastard sword the first time, but he wasn’t so lucky the second time. The force of the blow knocked him into the wall which knocked him out cold. Between Throck’s axe and my Magic Missles, we managed to kill the damned thing. I’m spent… need to rest soon.
Jordan Chalice
02 Apr 652 bloody cave
Jordan said I need to write something nice in this here book. Galthor, may the earth turn your bones into stone so that it can hold everyone else up like you helped keep us up in your last moments. My axe will taste goblin blood in your memory tomorrow!
Throck
02 Apr 652 goblin tunnels, back door entry room
We are resting here to recover from all the ordeals lately. I have moved poor Galthor’s body out by the cliff door so we can bury him properly on our way back to town. I am going to carry his gear with us in case we need it or can free some slaves that can use it. Galthor, you bested me in a contest of strength; not many can lay claim to that. Your valor was proven to be stronger yet. May Cayden Cailean walk with you on your next journey.
Roland
03 Apr 652 Secret Treasure Room
I am taking a breather in this secret room Throck found while Jordan and Throck finish collecting all the gold coins on the ground. Throck estimates there to be 800 or so of them scattered around. 💡 Would that be enough to petition the town clergy for a rez for Galthor? I am doubtful. Thanks to Galthor’s pack I am carrying around, the flasks of oil and torches he carried allowed us to clear out the nasty golden scarab beetles guarding this treasure heap. It would be ironic if this was enough to bring him back to us. Throck managed to build a makeshift barrier at the sliding wall entrance to keep the beetles safely away from us while I tossed in the flasks, followed by the torches, to burn them all up.
There’s a dead hobgoblin in the corner with fancier armor than they typically wear and about a dozen arrows sticking out of his body. Throck tried to lasso it and drag it to the entrance, but that did not work out so well. But now that I am studying that corpse while writing about it… something seems odd about it. I feel like something is out of place… but what? 😕
Roland
Newest Entries
04 Apr 652 Back Entrance (where Galthor perished)
The dead hobgoblin had an interesting patch that I ripped off its ancient armor in case we run into the symbol later. Throck found a secret door in the north wall. It does not seem to open from this side. We go around to the wooden door to this northern room and go inside. It looks like a shrine to some evil goblin deity. There is a broken stone statue on the ground. After Jordan and Throck’s objection to me touching anything, I sincerely believe that keeping that statue from reforming is a good idea. I pick up the center chest piece with the fancy insignia. That was a mistake.
Once I picked up the chunck of stone, the thing started to reform, just as we all feared. I tried to run into the secret chamber with the chest piece, but the magic trying to return it to the statue was too strong and it ripped from my grasp to form the Statue-Golum thing. Damn! So much for my plan. We gather at the end of the hallway outside the secret chamber and the Statue formed a stone spear and thew it at us… which promptly turned to dust as soon as it hit. I thought we could lure it to the edge of the canyon and push it off, but instead we managed to beat it apart, breaking it back into little pieces within the secret chamber. After closing the door on its pieces, we figure it will be locked in there for quite a while.
Since none of us wanted to rest in the same room as that thing, nor in the Evil Sanctum room, we retreated back to the room we first entered and slept. Ugh, more nightmares about Galthor’s falling.
Roland
05 Apr 652 Back Door where Galthor lay
With Throck leading, we rounded the corner to go deeper into this den of slavery only to come face to face with one of the slaver goblins leading a slave woman in chains. We quickly take care of the goblin and use the key we found on its body to free the woman. We all felt like heroes to finally save one of the slaves… but she refuses to head back to town and insists on coming with us to help free the others. Any protest has been drowned out by her constant conversation. Her name is Kitai Quinn, she’s been kept here in the slave pens rather than sold because she’s trained in herbalism and has been acting as their healer to patch up slaves and keep them alive so they can be sold for maximum profit. She’s been looking for an opportunity to turn the situation around and has jumped at the chance we represent. Since we cannot dissuade her from joining our cause, we’ve lead her back to Galthor’s body so that she might be able to use some proper clothing and armor rather than keep walking around barefoot and dressed in rags.
Roland
05 Apr 652 2nd level entrance
Freedom!! Oh thank the many gods someone is looking out for us downtrodden folk. My liberators have kindly let me join them to stop these maniacs and have lent me some of their gear they brought along… though it makes me sad 🙁 to hear they have extra gear to give me thanks to one of these monsters laying low one of their own. Gathor, I believe his name was. Wherever you are, thank you, thank you, thank you for having a heart big enough to come try and put a stop to these fiends. Its more than I can say for the authorities nearby. 😡 Time to make my captors pay! 👿
The guys that have rescued me (Roland, Throck, and Jordan) are cute and patient. I’ve talked their ears off giving them no chance to dissuade me from joining them; telling them all about my capture, my being their slave healer, my mentor’s capture and subsequently being sold, my gypsy life in the hands of an enemy captured city… anything to keep their questions and potential objections at bay. It’s a trick I learned long ago. 😉 I used a couple of magic tricks my mentor taught me {ooc: Mend and Prestidigitation} to clean off the dried blood and repair the gashes in the armor and clothes of their fallen comrade. They were SO embarrassed when I suddenly stripped right in front of them to put on the newly cleaned and repaired clothes and armor (which fit pretty well, actually!). That Roland fellow immediately turned red as he turned around, Jordan stared a bit with his jaw on the floor before he noticed what Roland did and followed suit. That Throck though, lol, didn’t move a muscle and didn’t react one bit; I suppose my beard isn’t long enough for his taste. 😉 Anyway, now that we’ve spent an hour letting me get dressed and prepared for battle, I’ve strapped the longsword to my left hip and the whip on my right. I was intrigued by the book Roland was scratching in and asked him what it was. He told me it was their journal of what’s been happening to them. Galthor started it and he took up the pen in his memory. I volunteered to scribe our adventure because I have trained for quite a while at speed writing while maintaining my penmanship… plus, books and stuff are kind of my thing! Onwards to victory!
Kitai Quinn, Medicine Woman